Commercially available cosmetics containing a powder include makeup cosmetics such as foundation, face powder, rouge, and eye shadow; body cosmetic formulations such as body powder, baby powder, and body lotion; lotions such as face lotion and preshave lotion; as well as emulsions, creams, and the like. Powders are added to these cosmetics for the purpose of providing them with several functions, e.g., improving spreadability on the skin and the feeling thereof, concealing wrinkles, and the like.
Examples of the powders include inorganic powders such as silica and talc; and resin powders of polymethyl methacrylate, crosslinked polystyrene, nylon, polyethylene, and the like.
When applied on the skin, cosmetics containing an inorganic powder such as silica or talc or a resin powder can alleviate the greasy feeling and the shininess of the skin due to perspiration, sebum or oily components. Also they can improve the skin smoothness. But they can not obtain natural skin feeling because of the dry feeling inherent to the powder. Especially in a dry environment, for example, in winter, these cosmetics have not been favorable, as they provided dry feeling.
JP-A 2000-186017, JP-A 2000-302624 and JP-A 2002-265529 disclose external formulations containing crosslinked (meth)acrylic ester resin particles having a compression strength of 0.05 to 0.6 kgf/mm2. These particles provide favorable spreadability and feelings, but still unsatisfactory. There exist a need for particles that are more easily spreadable and still provide such feelings as smoothness and softness.
On the other hand, various wet cosmetic sheets have been commercialized for use in wiping the body, for example, face, neck, hands and feet, and in shaving. There are a variety of such products, including products packed one by one, pocket tissue-type products containing ten or more sheets, and box-type products containing dozens to hundreds of sheets. These products are manufactured by impregnating appropriate sheets with cosmetic ingredients and other ingredients such as cleanser, tonic, bactericide, and perfume, and are used for cleansing the skin, refreshing the skin, or moisturizing the skin for shaving.
JP-A 2000-1424, equivalent to EP-A 950391, and JP-A 2001-278736 disclose cosmetic sheets impregnated with an inorganic powders such as silica or talc or a spherical powder such as organic silicone.
However, when the skin is wiped with these cosmetic sheets, the skin may become smoother with the powder, but the cosmetics leave the dry feeling of the powder on the user's skin, namely providing non-natural skin feeling. In addition, application of these powders may alleviate the sticky feeling caused by perspiration to some extent, but do not provide favorable feeling sufficiently when the skin condition is deteriorated or in dry seasons such as winter.